.BANK Frequently Asked Questions

A: The .BANK domain name was created out of the concern for the security of the current way website names are registered and administered. The .BANK domain name is a trusted domain name and an easy way to identify you are using a verified banking institution.

Unlike the standard domain names we are all familiar with (.COM, .NET, ORG), the .BANK domain can only be used by a verified and authenticated bank. If you visit a .BANK website or send an email to a .BANK address, you can be confident it is truly a bank, and not someone posing as bank to steal your information.

To put it simply, this is an additional way we can help to protect our customers.

Q: This sounds a bit too simple, I’d like to have a more technical reason why .BANK is better.

A: For those more technically inclined, here are some of the requirements that are mandated to use .BANK that are not required for the more common domain names like .COM:

• Mandatory Verification of Charter/Licensure for Regulated Entities ensures that only legitimate members of the global banking community are awarded domain names.

• Mandatory Re-verification of Registration Data every two years or at domain renewal, whichever comes first, ensures ongoing eligibility for domain names.

• Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) ensures that Internet users are landing on participants’ actual websites and not being misdirected to malicious ones. fTLD will require that all domain levels, from fTLD as the top-level registry operator to your entity as the registrant, utilize DNSSEC for domains that resolve on the Internet.

Q: Once www.wheatland.bank is officially rolled out, what will happen if someone still uses the .COM website?

A: Anyone using our old website name will be automatically redirected to the new website name. If you have bookmarked any webpages on our .COM site, we suggest you modify those bookmarks for the new .BANK website.

Q: Why does online banking need to be disabled while changing the website name?

A: We are making other back end enhancements that are preparing for new features we think you will be excited about. The online banking scheduled outage is more about the preparation for future enhancements than related to the name change.

Q: During the weekend update, it still allows me to login to online banking, I thought it was unavailable?

A: You will still be able to login to online banking and view transactions, however balance information will not be updated during the weekend. Balance transfers and transactional types of activity will not work. All the same functionality restrictions apply to mobile banking during the scheduled outage.

Q: I still prefer to use Telephone banking. Will this be operational during the scheduled outage?

A: No, this will also be unavailable.

Q: Will I still be able to make purchases and use the ATM over the weekend?

A: Yes.

Q: What new features can I expect to see?

A: Most of these new features will be rolled out through the year. However, here two improvements you will start seeing in April:

Statements: Starting in April, we will have a new look and feel for our statements. Also, all statements will generate at the end of the month. Most of our consumer statements have had a mid-month statement cycle which was at times confusing. This adjustment will make all statements consistent to have an end of month statement.

During this transition, just in the month of April, we will be sending an early statement, followed by an end of the month statement with the new improved look. After the month of April, everyone will receive only the end of the month statement going forward.

Transaction Cut Off – We are adjusting our cut off times so that anything that happens during the business day will be reflected that same day. In our current environment, depending on the type of transaction, it may not be reflected until the next business day. After the weekend update, starting April 9, all transactions will be reflected same day.

We appreciate your patience while we make these upgrades and look forward to the improvements coming soon. Thank you for banking with Wheatland Bank.